Development of Innovative Small
Scale Electrification Concepts
- A Minor Field Study in NamibiaFREDRIK BERGLUND
JONNY BJÖRKLUND
Master of Science Thesis Stockholm, Sweden 2009
Development of Innovative Small Scale
Electrification Concepts
- A Minor Field Study in Namibia
Fredrik Berglund
Jonny Björklund
Master of Science Thesis MMK 2009: 88 MCE 209 KTH Industrial Engineering and Management
Machine Design SE-100 44 STOCKHOLM
Examensarbete MMK 2009:88 MCE 209
Utveckling av Innovativa Småskaliga Elförsörjningskoncept
- Minor Field Study i Namibia
Fredrik Berglund Jonny Björklund Godkänt 2009-12-11 Examinator Lars Hagman Handledare Ulf Sellgren Uppdragsgivare NA Kontaktperson NA Sammanfattning
En stor del befolkningen i Namibia lever idag utan tillgång till nätdistribuerad elektricitet. Detta innebär att man stängs ute från grundläggande funktioner såsom modern belysning, informationsteknologi och hygieniska mathanteringsfunktioner. Att finna kostnadseffektiva alternativa sätt att distribuera el utanför nätet är därför en väldigt viktig uppgift.
Detta examensarbete har skett i samarbete med ett flertal organisationer och institutioner i Sverige och Namibia och fokuserat på innovation och användarförståelse. Syftet har varit att (1) utveckla ett koncept för off-grid elförsörjning i Namibia samt att (2) utveckla djupare kunskap inom området innovation för pyramidens bas, den stora del av jordens befolkning som tillhör den fattigaste socioekonomiska gruppen.
Centralt under arbetets gång har varit att utveckla en användarförståelse samt att identifiera essentiella användarbehov. För att skapa en grund till detta har, utöver teoretiska studier av tidigare projekt, sociala, politiska och historiska faktorer i Namibia studerats. Detta har följts av en längre fältstudie i Namibia med boende i icke-elektrifierade hushåll.
Efter analys av resultaten från fältstudien har två angreppssätt för att arbeta med off-grid elektricitet identifieras. Den första består av ett småskaligt modulbaserat solkraftverk, ett behovsanpassat system som utnyttjar fördelar från flera tidigare projekt. Jämfört med dessa bör konceptet (1) innebära en förbättrad anpassningsförmåga för att möta skiftande behov och (2) medföra en fokusförändring från produktion till distribution av elektricitet.
Det andra angreppssättet strävar efter att eliminera själva behovet av elektricitet istället för att försöka finna sätt att tillhandahålla elektricitet. Det föreslås att en satsning på att utveckla billiga produkter som kan drivas utan att kopplas till en yttre strömkälla. Ett förslag är en soldriven mobiltelefonladdare. Kortsiktigt så rekommenderas detta som mer intressant att arbeta vidare med.
Slutligen bör vikten av information understrykas. Det räcker inte med att utveckla teknologin, för att främja utvecklingen bör utbildning och information erbjudas kring frågor som skötsel och effektiv användning.
Master of Science Thesis MMK 2009:88 MCE 209
Development of Innovative Small Scale Electrification Concepts
- A Minor Field Study in Namibia
Fredrik Berglund Jonny Björklund Approved 2009-12-11 Examiner Lars Hagman Supervisor Ulf Sellgren Commissioner NA Contact person NA Abstract
A large part of the Namibian low income population lack access to grid distributed electricity. This mean they are effectively shut out from basic functions such as lighting, information technologies and hygienic food handling. Hence, finding ways of providing affordable off-grid electricity is an important, not to say critical, task.
This master thesis is an innovation and concept development project that has been carried out in cooperation with organisations in Sweden and Namibia. The purpose of the project has been to (1) develop a concept for off-grid electricity supply in Namibia and (2) to gain a deeper knowledge within the area of innovation and product development for the Base of the Pyramid population, i.e. the poorest, but largest, socio-economic part of the global population.
Essential in this project has been to acquire user understanding and to identify user needs to create a foundation for developing the concept. To do this, except theory study on previously projects on off-grid electrification, information and history of Namibia has been obtained. Furthermore a comprehensive field study was conducted in Namibia where several days were spent living together with the potential users, in off-grid households.
After analysing the findings from the field study two different approaches to off-grid electricity was identified. The first consists of a small scale, modularised, solar system; an adapted system combining advantages from earlier projects. Compared to previous work it should (1) be more adaptable to meet the shifting needs and (2) bring about a shift of focus from production to distribution of electricity.
The second approach strives at trying to eliminate the acute need for electricity instead of
supplying electricity. It is suggested that an effort is initiated to develop cheap appliances that
can be run without needed to be plugged in, e.g. solar powered cell phone chargers. This approach is seen as more interesting in a short term perspective.
Finally, focus must also be on information about the product for the user, not only developing the technology. For the product to be value adding the user must also be informed how to use and maintain it.
KTH, SE-100 44 Stockholm. Phone: +46 8 790 6000. Fax: +46 8 790 8192. E-mail: asaa@kth.se www.kth.se/student/utlandsstudier/examensarbete/mfs
This study has been carried out within the framework of the Minor Field Studies Scholarship Programme, MFS, which is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida.
The MFS Scholarship Programme offers Swedish university students an opportunity to carry out two months’ field work, usually the student’s final degree project, in a country in Africa, Asia or Latin America. The results of the work are presented in an MFS report which is also the student’s Master of Science Thesis. Minor Field Studies are primarily conducted within subject areas of importance from a development perspective and in a country where Swedish international cooperation is ongoing.
The main purpose of the MFS Programme is to enhance Swedish university students’ knowledge and understanding of these countries and their problems and opportunities. MFS should provide the student with initial experience of conditions in such a country. The overall goals are to widen the Swedish human resources cadre for engagement in international development cooperation as well as to promote scientific exchange between universities, research institutes and similar authorities as well as NGOs in developing countries and in Sweden.
The International Office at KTH the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, administers the MFS Programme within engineering and applied natural sciences.
Åsa Andersson Programme Officer
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During the course of a project such as this one are bound to rely on others for success, this is the way it is and the way it should be. Our humble gratitude goes out to everyone whom in any way contributed to the positive experience it has been. Thank you.But as always there are those who deserve a more personal expression of appreciation.
First and foremost we want to express our love and thankfulness to the fantastic families who opened up their homes and lives to us. We owe you forever gratitude; our experiences in Namibia wouldn’t have been half as enriching and enlightening without you. We look forward to the day we will sit together by the fire again, trying, without much success, to learn Oshivambo. Ulf Sellgren and Dr. Hina MuAshekele have been our supervisors during the work with the thesis. We would like to thank Ulf for coming with valuable suggestions and guidance; sometimes we have needed to be put back on track. Most of all however, we are grateful for the great amount of freedom we have had to form out work with open minds. We thank Hina for taking the time to share with us his deep and thorough knowledge on Namibia and the Namibian people.
Marie Johansson from Creative Entrepreneurs Solutions has played a key role in everything we have accomplished and learned during our time in Ondangwa. You are a very good person. Lars Hagman and Margareta Norell Bergendahl from KTH deserve mentioning for taking such an active part of planning and preparing the project and for fruitful discussions before and after. Zenas Iileka at UNAM has been generous with his time and knowledge during field visits to Katutura and has provided us with valuable insight and ideas from previous projects.
Our fellow Namibia travellers should be acknowledged. Mats and Stefan, it was great having you in the rear mirror all this time. Heléne and Jannicke, we really hope to have dinner with you some day.
Karin, Patrik and Lisa at the Swedish Trade Council office in Namibia. Martin Grimheden from PIEp, Åsa Andersson and MFS, the School of Industrial Engineering and Management and Åforsk have in different ways made important contribution for the realization of the thesis. Finally, our friendship and gratefulness goes to Sam, Lloyd and the rest of our friends at Chameleon as well as to James Dangle and his staff.
Stockholm, 2009-11-29
I would also like to thank Jenny for making this experience possible for me. I love you forever. /Jonny
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ABBREVIATIONS
AC Altering Current
AIDS Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome BoP Base of the Pyramid
BSE Bachelor Solar Electricity
CES Creative Entrepreneurs Solutions
DC Direct Current
GDP Gross Domestic Product
HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus IPD Integrated Product Development
KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan)
kW kilowatt
kWh kilowatt hour
LPG Liquefied petroleum gas
LV Low Voltage
MFS Minor Field Study (Sida funded student programme) MOGE Modularised Off-Grid Electrification
MRC Multidisciplinary Research Centre (Division at UNAM) NAD Namibian dollar (1 NAD ≈ 1 SEK ≈ 0,133 USD) NGO Non-Governmental Organization
OGEMP Off-Grid Electrification Master Plan for Namibia PIEp Product Innovation Engineering Program
PV Photovoltaic
SADC Southern African Development Community
SCP Sustainable Consumption and Production (Branch of UNEP) Sida Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency SME Small and Medium Enterprises
STC Swedish Trade Council
SWAPO South-West Africa People’s Organization
UN United Nations
UNAM University of Namibia
v UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNPD United Nations Population Division
USD United States Dollar (1 USD ≈ 7,5 SEK ≈ 7,5 NAD) USP Unique Selling Point
V Volt
W Watt
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L
IST
O
F
C
ONTENT
1 INTRODUCTION ... 1 -1.1 BACKGROUND ... 1 -1.2 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION ... 2 -1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES ... 2 -1.4 LIMITATIONS ... 2 -1.5 PLANNING ... 3 -2 FRAME OF REFERENCE ... 4 -2.1 INNOVATION ... 4-2.1.1 INNOVATION FOR ABETTER WORLD ... 4
-2.1.2 DEFINITIONS AND TERMINOLOGY ... 4 -2.1.3 USER UNDERSTANDING ... 5 -2.1.4 SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION... 7 -2.1.5 NEEDS AND REQUIREMENTS ... 7 -2.2 NAMIBIA ... 10 -2.2.1 PRESENTATION ... 10 -2.2.2 POLITICS ... 11 -2.2.3 GEOGRAPHY ... 12 -2.2.4 HISTORY ... 16 -2.2.5 SOCIAL STRUCTURES ... 16 -2.2.6 ECONOMY ... 17 -2.2.7 ENERGY SITUATION ... 19
-2.3 ENERGY AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT ... 20
-2.3.1 ENERGY AND POVERTY ... 20
-2.3.2 HOW TO DO IT? ... 22
-2.3.3 WAYS FORWARD ... 23
-2.3.4 UNITED NATIONS AND SOLAR IN AFRICA ... 24
-2.3.5 ELECTRIFICATION EFFORTS IN NAMIBIA ... 25
-2.4 SOLAR AND STEAM ... 27
-2.4.1 SOLAR TECHNOLOGY, AN OVERVIEW ... 27
-2.4.2 SMALL SCALE SOLAR STEAM POWERED ELECTRIC GENERATOR ... 28
-3 METHOD ... 30
-3.1 METHOD INTRODUCTION ... 30
-3.2 FIELD STUDY APPROACH ... 31
-3.3 FIELD STUDY METHODS ... 32
-3.4 ANALYSIS OF THE DATA ... 32 -3.5 CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT ... 33 -3.6 CONFERECES/COMMERCALIZATION... 33 -4 RESULTS ... 34 -4.1 FIELD STUDY ... 34 -4.1.1 HOMESTEADS IN ONDANGWA ... 34
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4.1.2 INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS IN ONDANGWA ... 35
-4.1.3 OTHER OBSERVATIONS ... 36
-4.1.4 COLLABORATIONS ... 38
-4.1.5 SUMMARY OF FIELD STUDY ... 40
-4.2 ANALYSIS ... 41
-4.2.1 INNOVATION FOR THE BASE OF THE PYRAMID ... 41
-4.2.2 COLONIZATION AND AID, SIMILAR MOTIVES; SIMILAR PROBLEMS ... 44
-4.2.3 NEEDS ANALYSIS ... 45
-4.3 CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT ... 46
-4.3.1 THE ELECTRICITY CHALLENGE; TWO POSSIBLE APPROACHES ... 47
-4.3.2 APPROACH 1; AN INCREMENTAL INNOVATION APPROACH ... 48
-4.3.3 APPROACH 2; ARADICAL INNOVATION APPROACH ... 51
-4.3.4 COMBINATION OF THE APPROACHES ... 52 -5 CONCLUSIONS ... 53 -6 DISCUSSION ... 55 -6.1 GENERAL REFLECTIONS ... 55 -6.2 DELIVERABLES ... 55 -6.3 METHODS ... 56 -7 RECOMMENDATIONS ... 57
-7.1 RECOMMENDATION FOR THE BSESYSTEM ... 57
-7.2 RECOMMENDATION FOR APPROACH 2 ... 58
-7.3 OTHER PRODUCTS ... 58
-7.4 GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS ... 58
-8 REFERENCES... 59
-9 APPENDIXES ... 63
-APPENDIX I GANTT CHART FOR THE PROJECT ... 63
-APPENDIX II NAMIBIAN ELECTRIC PLANT PROJECTS ... 64
-APPENDIX III INFORMATION ON THE POWERCAN PROJECT AT UNAM. ... 65
-APPENDIX IV POSTER AT SYMBIOCITY CONFERENCE ... 66
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1 INTRODUCTION
In this section a brief introduction to the thesis will be given. First the background and purpose of sending product developing students to Namibia will be presented. This will then be followed by project information and planning
1.1 Background
In early 2009 the final year students in Integrated Product Development (IPD) at the Department of Machine Design of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) was presented with the opportunity to carry out a master’s thesis project in Namibia in southern Africa. At that time it had not been decided what should be done; only that something should be done. For the students declaring an initial interest this was the start of the most enriching and adventurous experience during the entire education.
Up until then activities at the IPD division had dealt with product development and innovation for the developed world. Nevertheless there had existed a desire to expand beyond this horizon and set up activities dealing with developing products for the large Base of the Pyramid (BoP) population in the world. The BoP is the poorest, but largest, socio-economic part of the global population. It includes about 4 billion people living on less than 2 USD per day. (Financial times lexicon, 2009). When people from KTH met with representatives from the Swedish Trade Council (STC) during travels in Namibia an opportunity arose. STC is working for increased Swedish-Namibian cooperative initiatives at all levels and wanted to encourage collaborations involving students. It was agreed that a group of students from KTH were to go to Namibia, both to perform field studies for their own theses but also to act as pilots in the ambition to arrange more long-term collaborations. Including this thesis a total of three projects were planned. Development of a solar oven and a need assessment study being the others.
After having been presented with the basic plans for this set-up it was up to the students to define projects and arrange all the practicalities, funding etc. Several suggestions of assignments was discussed, most of them in the energy field. Energy shortage had been identified by STC as a suitable area to focus on. With a very large part of the population living without access to grid distributed electricity finding ways of providing off-grid solutions is an important task. With a starting point in a solution suggested in a bachelor thesis performed at the department of Machine Design it was decided that an evaluation of the demands and requirements of the actual potential users needed to be done. To find a solution truly responding to the needs of the future users in Namibia a deeper understanding of the reality and everyday life of these people was essential.
To find suitable collaboration partners the University of Namibia (UNAM) was contacted and a contact with Dr. Hina MuAshekele at the Multidisciplinary Research Centre (MRC) was established. Dr. MuAshekele eventually accepted to supervise the project during the time in Namibia.
Through their Minor Field Study (MFS) Programme, Sida are providing funds for students doing field work in developing countries. All three Namibia theses were accepted in this programme. This did not only mean financial support but also education and help with planning and preparing the project. Funds were also provided by the Product Innovation Engineering program (PIEp), a programme for increased innovation in Swedish industry and academia and Ångpanneföreningen's Foundation for Research and Development (ÅForsk).
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1.2 Problem description
A large part of the Namibian low income population lack access to grid distributed electricity. This mean they are effectively shut out from basic functions such as lighting, information technologies and hygienic food handling. As it is seen as unlikely that the grid will be sufficiently extended in any short-term predictions (Schultz and Schumann, 2007) finding ways of providing affordable off-grid electricity is an important, not to say critical, task. To be able to develop such a solution a deeper understanding of the actual needs and demands at the concerned groups of people, both rural and urban, must be gained.
1.3 Aim and objectives
The main objective of the thesis is to develop a conceptual steam engine based system for off-grid energy supply in Namibian environments. Further aims of the project are formulated within the following framework:
Knowledge:
Wider knowledge regarding potential energy sources and future possibilities of off-grid electricity supply.
Insight and knowledge in the community life and cultural contexts, ways of thinking, everyday life and how all this affects a potential energy solution.
A deeper knowledge in the area of product development for the BoP.
Deliverables
Set up a list of requirements for a steam engine based system for off-grid energy supply in Namibia.
Development of a conceptual solution fulfilling the list of requirements.
Report findings on Swedish-Namibian collaboration opportunities on a conference arranged by STC.
In addition to these aims there is an expressed wish that the three parallel projects lead to further Namibian-Swedish collaborations. This is summarized as follows:
A deeper understanding of future opportunities for Swedish-Namibian energy collaborations.
Identify possible areas of research collaborations with the MRC’s divisions.
Set up baselines for future collaborations between MRC/UNAM and the division of Integrated Product Development (IPD) and the department of Machine Design at KTH
1.4 Limitations
This thesis will focus on needs and conditions in Namibia specifically and not on developing countries in general. Since the purpose of performing a field study in Namibia has been to discover factors not visible from Sweden it would have been a contradiction to compare findings with assumptions on these factors for other countries.
The project does not aim to result in a physical prototype. A conceptual solution shall be developed, in what format depends on the solution, based on an already developed system at KTH, see section 2.4.2 Small Scale Solar Steam Powered Electric Generator. If the field study shows that the system is not a realistic way of meeting the needs in Namibia, the work will be on deeper understanding on how different social patterns effect product requirements.
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The project will not include economical models for financing the developed solution, nor will it consider manufacturing issues.
1.5 Planning
The project will be carried out during 20 weeks; 9 of them will be carried out from Windhoek, Namibia. An initial theoretical study will be performed in Stockholm. The results from this study combined with findings from earlier projects will form the baseline for the field study. When out in the field, access to references might be a difficulty. The field study will be followed up by 6-8 weeks of work in Sweden. A detailed Gantt schedule was initially set up and this acted as guide during the work. Due to the explorative nature of this thesis the planning have had to be redone and adapted during the course of the work. The Gantt schedule can be seen in Appendix I.
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2 FRAME OF REFERENCE
The following chapter will present a framework of relevant theory for the thesis. The chapter will start with an overview of innovation and how it can be a tool to fight poverty and promote development. After this Namibia will be shortly introduced to give the reader an outline and creating a theoretical foundation for further reading. This will be followed by a study of the links between poverty and energy and how development can be achieved through electricity access.
2.1 Innovation
In this thesis innovation, combining new creative solutions with commercialisation, is seen as an important tool to fight poverty and increase the living conditions for billions of people in the developing world. This first section gives an introduction of what innovation is and how it can be used.
2.1.1 Innovation for a better world
New innovative products meeting the needs of the billions of people living under poor conditions in the developing world while caring for and preserving the environment is one of mankind’s biggest challenges. According to Görnerup (2009), Sweden has got a big potential to play an important part in developing and providing these innovations. Private as well as public investments in research and development are in an international comparison big and Swedish companies possess great knowledge within these fields. The challenge today is to become better at commercializing Swedish research in new important markets. (Görnerup, 2009)
Görnerup presents three basic future scenarios for Swedish academic research; (1) a successful change from producing to utilizing research results, supposedly resulting in a better world and financial growth; (2) research results staying within the academic world and finally (3) research results being commercialized outside Sweden. The last scenario possibly leading to a more developed world but not necessarily improved financial growth in Sweden. The Swedish government is currently making big financial efforts to promote the first alternative (Swedish Government, 2008). In this thesis the idea of innovation as a tool to improve as well living conditions for the BoP as potentially benefit Swedish industry has been adopted. Before describing how this has been approached a definition of the term innovation is in place.
2.1.2 Definitions and terminology
Different definitions of the term innovation exist, e.g. ―innovation is new stuff that is made
useful‖ (McKeown, 2008). In this thesis a simple straightforward use of the word is applied.
Here innovation means developing new creative solutions to problems and then commercializing these (e.g. Johannesson, Persson and Pettersson, 2004). Furthermore, innovation is often categorized into radical, incremental and disruptive. Central in this categorization is how the innovation affects the stakeholder’s behaviour. According to Tan and McAloone (2006) incremental innovation means improvements to stakeholders within an existing system, radical innovation delivers improvements that create new, previously non-existing systems and possibilities for stakeholders. Leifer, McDermott, O’Connor, Peters, Rice and Veryzer (2000) define a radical innovation as a ―product, process, or service with either unprecedented
performance features or familiar features that offer potential for significant improvements in performance or cost‖. The authors distinguish between incremental and radical innovation by
writing incremental innovation deals with cost or feature improvements in existing products, services or processes while radical innovation deals with new products, business or services
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based on new technology or new ideas. A radical innovation is also an innovation of such magnitude that if transforms the market or creates a new one.
The term disruptive innovation, first introduced as disruptive technology by Chistensen and Bower (1995), describes an, often initially inferior, technology entering the market and then through technological improvements manages to first disturb and then disrupt existing user behavioural patterns enough to completely conquer the market.
When working with radical innovations comparison with existing products is in general less important than when working with incremental innovation. User behaviour and trends are more important as well as new technology and new ways of using technology.
2.1.3 User understanding
PIEp, a national programme to increase innovation capacity in Swedish industry and academia (PIEp, 2009), has identified six factors which together forms a platform to create an innovative business/enterprise/company.
User understanding – Who is to be satisfied? Resources
A risk taking environment Learning and knowledge sharing
Balance between creativity and structure Leadership
All these factors are thoroughly described and discussed by PIEp (2008). During the work with this thesis focus has been on user understanding and learning; user understanding and involvement to create a solution with the possibility to become an innovation. Learning and knowledge sharing to help create an innovative climate at the institution, serving as information, encouragement and inspiration when planning and performing future product development projects for the BoP.
What is user presence?
If a product development project can be considered successful and innovative is very much determined by how the outcome is received by the end user. The general idea is that innovation happens when a new idea is transformed into an economically sustainable business, when the idea is commercialized. This basically means the user have to be prepared to pay enough for the product to generate an economic profit. To be able to develop such a product it is essential to know the user. If a clear and vivid image of the user and her reality and problems is allowed to guide and lead the development the product will be a success according to PIEp (2008). This user understanding can be labelled in different ways, but what is essential is to understand that it is something more than just asking the user what she wants.
According to Kelley and Littman (2001) the key to gaining this critical user knowledge is to go one step further. Using focus groups is not enough. If a potential user or even worse a person trying to act as a potential user, is removed from the natural environment and put in a situation where he or she is expected to answer questions or in any other way contribute to user knowledge generating, the information is bound to be insufficient, incomplete or even incorrect. This is explained by different psychological factors by the authors. First of people are often too polite to give honest critique, they tell what they believe will please the asker. It is not in line with social conventions to say another person’s work is bad, Kelley and Littman exemplifies this by saying you do not criticize the meat loaf on a dinner, even when it tastes like saw dust. This might not be true for every single person, but it is hard to know when this applies and when not.
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Secondly people answer what they know. Simplified this means when describing a new product they want everything the old one had as well as all features the competitor’s product have and all this at a lower price. A third factor described is the users being unaware of a problem because they are so used to it. Finally the authors describe a common incapability to articulate a “correct” answer. A user might be aware of a problem but has difficulties explaining or concretizing it. This is especially critical when asking someone about what is missing.
Kelley and Littman (2001) argue that a person trying to gain true user understanding must always go directly to the source. User behaviours and patterns can only be identified when the users are in their natural environment doing what they do every day. This is then done through observations during a prolonged period of time making the observed users forget someone is observing them. When making observations it is important to be aware what to notice. Just writing down problems and then trying to solve these will not always lead to successful products or services. Social patterns, motivation factors, happiness triggers and so forth are just as important. According to Johansson (2009) of Creative Entrepreneurs Solutions (CES), a consulting company helping other companies as well as private persons in Namibia with entrepreneurial services and education, this is common for Western projects in Africa. One example given was an aid project where a village in Namibia got water pipes installed meaning the women no longer had to walk one hour to the river to fetch water and then one hour back every day. The taps where used the first week, then the women started to take the walks to the river again. When the very confused aid workers tried to figure out why they learned that fetching water was a chance for the women to meet and socialize with women from other villages. The water tap isolated them. The aid workers had identified problems, long walks, bad backs etc. But they had not noticed the happiness triggers, the social factors.
Type user or User types?
When saying you need to know and understand the user the first question to ask is who is the user, or rather who is to represent the user. PIEp (2008) is suggesting that the simplified idea of one type user is an approach to user understanding that needs to be replaced by a more multiple and always changing user. This can be seen in more than one way. First it is important to understand different users with different roles in the product chain. From the manufacturers to the end user the product will pass a lot of people and all of these might have important inputs. Secondly one must remember that even when focusing only on the end user extreme differences might be found. A small low-income household of two are not likely to have the same requirements on an electricity providing system as a high-income household of 10 for example. User segmentation is one way to handle this. In a bachelor thesis by Larsson, Söderberg and Örning, (2009), more reading about this project is found in the section 2.4.2 Small Scale Solar
Steam Powered Electric Generator, a system was developed and dimensioned to provide
electricity to a specified number of households with equal demands and needs. This is an approach that is suitable at a first stage but to gain the insight needed to develop the system further it is important to widen the picture.
Sharing knowledge and ideas
Throughout planning and carrying out of this thesis one central question, not necessarily concerning the actual development of an off-grid electricity system, has been how to make sure the knowledge and insight gained in the process is effectively retained at the institution and integrated into future projects. The vision is to achieve a sustaining imprint in the work with product development and innovation for the BoP.
Sharing ideas, insight and knowledge is a central part of innovative work. PIEp (2008) describes utilizing earlier work and learning from experiences as a critical factor for an innovative
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organisation. Reflection over actions and results is an important part of achieving this. Innovation capability is used as a term describing how well an organisation can adapt to and integrate new findings and demands into their way of working. Working together with the organization, in this case KTH and students at IPD, will be crucial for passing on knowledge into future projects. The innovation capability of the division of IPD as well as the department of Machine Design will be important to retain, reutilize and develop knowledge for future projects.
2.1.4 Sustainable innovation
The Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been working with developing methods for sustainable product innovation for developing countries. According to UNEP (2009) a common problem with product development for developing markets is the unwillingness of companies to enter these markets with new products, instead products tend to be copies from those already existing on the market. But as needs often are different from those on a developed market this is an attitude that need to be changed and awareness of how to meet issues such as the implications of resource use need to be raised.
To do this, to be sustainable, there are a number of challenges identified that must be met when working with product development. These are linked to and divided into three categories; people, planet and profit. The link between product innovation and sustainability is described as creating new products that generates value only if they fit in a future described in these categories. For developing countries the people category includes challenges such as reducing income inequity, improve status of women and improving working conditions. The products are to ―create
opportunities to meet social and equity requirements.‖ The planet category challenges means the
products must “fit within the carrying capacity of the supporting ecosystem”, and this includes reducing dung and wood burning as well as reducing industrial emissions. Finally the profit category includes ownership and credit opportunities for entrepreneurs and fair prices for commodities and raw material. The product should ―create equitable value for customers and
stakeholders along the global value chain‖. (UNEP, 2009).
To summarize the criteria presented by UNEP, designing products for the developing world should on one hand deal with improving the general standard of life and promote and support development while still caring for and preserve the environment both locally and globally. On the other hand it should be commercially sound. It is worth noticing that the UN mentions unrealistic and unsustainable economic calculations as one of the major factors behind project failures. Economic plans are often not carried out by professional economists and they are more often based on just trying to achieve affordability and not economic sustainability.
2.1.5 Needs and requirements
To be successful with innovation, transforming user behaviour, happiness triggers, wishes etc into tangible needs and requirement poses a great challenge. It is difficult to separate the terms
needs and requirements when discussing about product development and it does not exist an
accepted standard definition of any of these terms. One reason could be that the term requirement often comprises the term needs, which is shown in two common definitions of requirements:
―A requirement is a necessary attribute of a system, a statement that identifies a capability, characteristic, or a quality factor of a system…‖ (Young, 2003)
―Requirements are those externally observable characteristics of a system that a user, buyer, customer, or other stakeholder desires to have present in the system.‖ (Davis,
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Even though it is a subjective opinion, one could accept that both needs and requirements are comprised in both of the two definitions above. In this report, though, the two terms will be separated. Not just by how they are defined but mainly in what phase of the requirement management process they enter. The needs are the first identified functions/features of the user, customer or other stakeholder which turn into requirements after they have been analysed and managed.
Needs
Just as the case with requirements there is an abundance of descriptions of what a need is. This report will adapt the Kano model, developed by the Japanese professor Noriaki Kano in the 1980´s, when describing needs. In this model the needs are divided into three basic categories; basic needs, performance needs and excitement needs. (kanomodel.com, 2009)
The basic needs are the needs that are expected; the user takes for granted. Even though they are fulfilled they cannot satisfy the user, but if they are performed badly they will dissatisfy the user. Secondly the performance needs have a direct correlation between execution and user satisfaction. More, and well fulfilled, performance needs increases the user satisfaction while the absent of them consequently will decrease the level of satisfaction. Finally the excitement attributes are the ones that differentiate a product from others; the innovations and unique selling points (USP). They are the contradiction to the basic needs meaning that their absent cannot dissatisfy the user, but they delight the user when delivered. It has also been proved that these needs tend to change over time; yesterday’s excitement needs are performance needs today and will be basic needs tomorrow. The relation between the needs level of performance and customer satisfaction is shown in Figure 2.1 below. (ibid)
Requirements management
Most of the descriptions of requirement management describe basically the same activities. According to Davis et al. (2000) the activities in requirements management encompass collection, control, analysis, filtering and documentation of the requirements of the system while Young (2003) points out a much more comprehensive list of requirements-related activities. Some of these activities are: identifying stakeholders, requirements elicitation, clarifying and restating, analyzing, specifying, prioritizing, deriving, partitioning, allocating, managing and finally validating requirements. But as mentioned the process can be, and often are, summarized
Figure 2.1. The Kano model (adapted from kanomodel.com, 2009)
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in the following four events; (a) acquisition, (b) analyzing, (c) documentation and (d) validation and verification of requirements. The requirement management process as it is treated in this report is shown in Figure 2.2, were the terms needs and requirements are separated as they are treated in this report. It should also be stated that focus in this report has been on acquisition and analysing of the needs.
The acquisition of requirements involves collecting and understanding the needs of the end user, society, companies and customers etc., i.e. the stakeholders. The collecting of requirements, or needs as the requirement management process is seen in this project, is a difficult, but very important part of the requirement management process. Some of the reasons to this is that the end user does not always knows what it wants or having problems in explaining what they want, which already have been discussed together with other factors in the section 2.1.3 User
understanding. Karlsson (1998) describes a technique to use when collecting features; the
ACRE-method (ACquisition of REquirements). It describes the 12 most common methods; such as observations, interviews and brainstorming, of collecting needs and when these are appropriate to be used, see TABLE 2.1. No deeper description of these methods will be done in this report.
TABLE 2.1. Appropriateness of applying methods for acquisition of requirements (Karlsson, 1998)
Ob ser v atio n Un str u ctu red in ter v iews Stru ctu red in ter v iew Pro to co l C ar d So rtin g L ad d er in g R ep er to ry g rid s B rain sto rm in g R ap id p ro to ty p in g Scen ar io R AD E th n o g rap h y Future knowledge + ++ + ++ +++ +++ +++ Hidden knowledge +++ + + +++ + + + + ++ ++ ++ +++ Available knowledge + +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ +++ ++ +++ + +++ + Known knowledge + ++ + + ++ +++ +++ +++
+++ Very appropriate, ++ Appropriate, + Partly appropriate, (empty cell – inappropriate)
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In the table above the future and hidden knowledge can be compared to the term mind of the
customer (MOC), often used in the Kano model. MOC is the basic needs the customer do not
mention and excitement needs they do not realize they have. Consequently the available and known knowledge can be compared to the explicit expressed needs often named as voice of the
customer (VOC). According to appropriate methods for gathering basic needs are competitive
similarities, FMEA (failure mode and effect analysis) and tribal knowledge. Ethnography, interviews and classic market analysis are more suitable methods in the acquisition of performance needs. Finally the excitement needs are preferable collected by systematic innovations tools such as TRIZ by Altshuller, Painstorming and many other methods. (kanomodel.com, 2009) These methods will not be discussed here.
When all features and needs have been acquiesced it is important to analyze these. It has to be decided what features are to be accepted and included in the following product requirement specification. It is also essential to create an understanding of the features among all stakeholders and assure that they fulfil the criteria’s for well described requirements, i.e. cohesive, complete, unambiguous, verifiable etc. Finally, when decided what features to proceed with they have to be prioritized. Prioritizing the requirements is one of the main problems in requirements management (Karlsson, 1998). Young (2003) describes the so called 80 %-20 % rule. It basically says that 20 % of the requirements represent 80 % of the function of a software system. Moreover the 80 %-20 % rule means that 20 % of the requirements represent 80 % of the cost of the software system. Despite this fact there is a lack of effective methods to prioritize the requirements.
After the acquisition and analysis of the features, the requirements are to be recorded in a product requirements specification (also named as requirements document, use case or process specification for example). It is important that the product requirement document is of high quality since it is the base for the design of the system (Fransson, 2004). Except the requirements typical contents are scope and purpose, identification of stakeholders, constraints, timelines, definition of terms etc (Dick, Hull and Jackson, 2005). Even though this standard is more focused on a software requirement specification it is suitable and adaptable to the product requirement specification. The document must also, not only the requirements, be unambiguous, correct, consistent etc (Davis et al, 2000).
The validate part of the process is where the correct requirements are confirmed to be included in the system and the verification is the process of assuring that the requirements are ―addressed
and met in a system‖ (Young, 2003).
2.2 Namibia
In this section a general overview of Namibia and southern Africa is given. This is done to provide the reader with a basic understanding of the area, the people and the social context in which this thesis has been performed. This is seen as important to understand factors affecting analysing user needs. The section is divided into six parts; an introductory general presentation is followed by politics, geography, history, social structures and economy.
2.2.1 Presentation
Namibia is located in the southwest part of Africa as shown in Figure 2.3. The country shares boarders with Angola and Zambia in the north, Botswana in the east and South Africa in the south. To the west Namibia shores the Atlantic Ocean. Namibia is a large and sparsely populated country, the country covers about 825,000 km2, about twice the size of Sweden, but the population is just above 2 million. The official language is English but several other languages
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are spoken locally with Afrikaans, German, Oshiwambo, Herero, Nama being some of the largest. (CIA world fact book, 2009)
Figure 2.3. Map over Namibia and location in Africa (adapted from Food and the Agriculture Organizations of the United Nations, 2009 and mapsoft.net, 2009)
2.2.2 Politics
Since gaining independence from South Africa, see 2.2.4 History, in 1990 Namibia has developed a relatively strong multiparty representative democracy with a strong constitution. The president of Namibia is elected to a five-year term; so far only two persons have had this position, current president Hifikepunye Pohamba and modern Namibia’s founding father Sam Nujoma. The president is head of state and head of government, which exercise executive power. Legislative power is shared between the government and the bicameral parliament. (CIA world fact book, 2009 and STC, 2009a)
Namibia is generally seen as a relatively stable country (STC, 2009a). The Ibrahim Index of African Governance is a comprehensive measure based on several different variables reflecting how successful the government is in delivering essential political goods to the citizens. In 2008 Namibia was ranked 6th on this list indicating it is one of the more successful democracies in Africa (Mo Ibrahim foundation, 2008). In 2008 Namibia was ranked as 23th, shared with Hungary and the United Kingdom, out of 173 countries at the Reporters Without Borders' Worldwide Press Freedom Index list (Reporters Sans Frontières, 2008).
Domestic politics
Although being a strong multiparty democracy Namibian politics holds some complexity, much as a result of the clash between modern ideas of democracy and traditional ways of ruling. Traditionally Namibia was ruled by tribal kings and queens. In rural Namibia these power structure stills holds a central position in the everyday life of the ordinary people; the distance to centralized power in Windhoek is far not only geographically but even more so mentally according to Johansson (2009).
Namibia is divided into 13 regions and subdivided into 102 constituencies with 6-10 constituencies in each region. The size and number of people living in these regions varies much.
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Each of the constituencies votes for one councillor for the regional council, currently 13 corresponding to the 13 regions. From each regional council two representatives are chosen for the National Council, serving six-year terms. The National Council, thus having 26 members, is primarily an advisory body. (CIA world fact book, 2009)
With power divided between centralized government and parliament, regional councils and local tribal headmen, kings and queens, bureaucracy and political channels can sometimes be confusing and frustrating. Permits and permission must often be granted at several levels.
One of the most critical issues that Namibian politicians have to deal with is the war on AIDS/HIV. In Namibia about one out of five adults are infected with the virus. (Sida, 2009)
Foreign policies
With a small army and a relatively strong, but still small and fragile, economy, the Namibian Government’s principal foreign policy concerns developing and preserving strong ties with the other nations in the Southern African region. As a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Namibia actively works and lobbies for greater regional integration. The bonds to South Africa are very strong, both politically and economically, but yet Namibia follows an independent foreign policy. Nations that aided Namibia during the independence struggle are still important affiliates. Cuba, North Korea and Libya are some of the more controversial of these “friends of Namibia”. Sweden played a role during the fight against Apartheid, Sweden and Sida has a very good reputation according to Sundby (2009).
2.2.3 Geography
Namibia consists of five discernible geographical areas; the Central Plateau, the Namib Desert, the Escarpment, the Bushweld and the Kalahari Desert. The areas have different but overlapping characteristic abiotic conditions and vegetation. Generally the climate is extremely dry, with some exceptions in the northern parts of the country.
The Namib Desert is considered to be the second oldest desert in the world, having endured arid or semi-arid conditions for about 55 million years. Less than 10 mm of rain falls over the desert yearly. The Namib Desert stretches along the entire coastline of Namibia and continues into Angola. Because of strong southern winds from the Atlantic and the dry air of the desert immense fogs are normal in the Namib. Except for some year-round settlements in Sesriem the desert is unpopulated and there are very little vegetations. The mining of diamonds, tungsten and salt are important in the Namib Desert. Figure 2.4 shows sand dunes in the Namib Desert.
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Figure 2.4. Namib Desert, Sesriem Surroundings.
The Escarpment or the Great Escarpment rises more than 2000 meters above sea level. The further inland you get, hence getting away from cool Atlantic winds, the warmer it gets. The landscape is rocky and poorly soiled, but still much more living than in the Namib Desert. Vegetation along the Escarpment varies in both form and density, with community structure ranging from dense woodlands to more shrubby areas with scattered trees.
The Central Plateau stretches through the central parts of Namibia all the way from the Angolan border in the north to South Africa in the south. Most of the Namibian population as well as most of the economic activities are found here. Most of Namibian arable land is found here. Vegetation is much like in the Great Escarpment but with less topographic complexity.
The Kalahari has a great variety of different localized environments, from extremely dry to areas not at all responding to the common picture of deserts. Contrary to the extremely unvegetated environment in the Namib the Kalahari is home to a great variety of plants. In the Succulent Karoo, for example, over 5000 different species lives, more than half of them endemic.
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Weather
Namibia is a land of sun, with the tropic of Capricorn, 23,5° S, running straight through it creating both desert and tropic environments. On average Namibia enjoys over 300 days of sun and rainfall are very much isolated to heavy rainstorms during summertime, November until February. Along the Atlantic coast foggy and cloudy weather are much more common as a result of warm desert air meeting with cold polar winds. Average hours of sunshine per day can be seen in Figure 2.5.
Figure 2.5. Average hours of sunshine per day (adapted from University of Cologne, 2009)
Many sunshine hours naturally means Namibia is subject to heavy solar radiation. Solar energy reaches Earth in form of electromagnetic radiation. The effect hitting the atmosphere varies depending on distance from ground etc but lies in the magnitude of about 1300-1400 W/m2. The amount of radiation reaching the surface of the Earth differs much depending on where it is measured. In Namibia the highest concentrations of solar radiation area found in the central northern parts, where the population are most centred. On average, more than 6 kWh/m2 per day reaches the ground. Figure 2.6 shows a detailed image of solar radiation in Namibia. (University of Cologne, 2009) and this can be compared to Figure 2.7 where solar radiation is shown for the whole world (OkSolar.com 2009).
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Figure 2.6. Average values of solar radiation in Namibia (adapted from University of Cologne, 2009)
Figure 2.7. Solar radiation, kWh/m2 per day, world (OkSolar.com 2009)
Namibian temperatures can vary much depending on where in the country it is measured and what time of year. Summertime is warm while winter can be quite cold, during the Namibian winter time, April to September, temperatures can reach as low as below freezing point in the nights. During this time of year rain fall are very rare. Figure 2.8 shows how the temperature varies in Windhoek, situated in central Namibia over the year. The same curves apply for the
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whole country, only with higher averages in the north and lower in the south. (BBC Weather Centre, 2009).
Figure 2.8. Average temperatures and rainfall in Namibia. (BBC Weather Centre 2009)
2.2.4 History
In the mid 1890’s Germany and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck declared a protectorate from the South African border following the coast all the way up to today’s Angola calling it German South West Africa. During World War I South Africa it was occupied by South Africa and then administrated as a mandate up until World War II when it was finally annexed. The area was then ruled under the same Apartheid laws applying for South Africa. (Wesseling, 1996).
The South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), a Marxist guerrilla group, was founded in 1966 launching a war of independence. South Africa held out until 1988 when it agreed to end its administration in accordance with a UN peace plan. Since gaining independence in 1990 the party has been the dominating in every election. Hifikepunye Pohamba was elected president in November 2004 in a landslide victory replacing Sam Nujoma who led the country during its first 14 years of self rule. (CIA world fact book, 2009)
2.2.5 Social structures
The population of Namibia is scattered around the nation with a concentration in the northern parts. There is no really large city, even Windhoek only holds about 200 000 people. Namibia is one of the world’s most sparsely populated countries; the United Nations Population Division predicts the number of inhabitants per km2 to reach 3 for the first time in 2010 (UNPD, 2008). The central parts of northern Namibia is more densely populated than the rest of the country with the Oshana region being the most densely populated with just over 30 ppl/km2. I comparison the same number for the Karas region in the south most part of the country is below 0.5. Figure 2.9 illustrates how the population is concentrated to the Windhoek area, the harbour area of Swakopmund and in the central northern part.
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Figure 2.9. Density of people in Namibia (adapted from University of Cologne, 2009)
About 70 % of the Namibian population live in rural areas. In this aspect, the Oshana region is the one most representative for the nation as a whole. The Khomas area, where Windhoek is located, is the most urban dominated area with more than 90 % of the population urbanized. The northern parts of Namibia are experiencing growing urbanization.
The Namibian population consists of several different ethnical groups and to describe all these cultures would be to spacious to fit in this report, but a brief overview will be given. A large white community consisting of both English and German speakers is present, concentrated to Windhoek, Swakopmund and farms in central and south Namibia. South of Windhoek, in the city of Rehoboot, the Baster community have their stronghold. The Basters, proudly using the term coming from the Dutch word for bastard, are people descendant from liaison between Cape Colony Dutch and indigenous African women. A separatist movement is even fighting for an independent Baster nation.
The largest of the indigenous African tribes are the Ovambos with Hereros, Himbas, Kavangos and Namas being other large groups. The Ovambo tribe represent almost 50 % of all Namibian and are centered in the north but present all of the country. In earlier times, the Ovambos were a nomadic people following their cattle but in modern times they have had to adapt and become settled in one place. (Namibweb.com, 2009)
2.2.6 Economy
Namibia is as mentioned an African nation with good development. It is tightly connected to South Africa and SADC. Even now in the ongoing recession they are showing decent figures, in 2008 the real GDP growth in 2008 was 2.7 %, much thanks to the mining industry (STC, 2009b). The GDP per capita is high relative the region, some central figures on the GDP is presented in
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indicating this inequality, is the world’s highest and the unemployment rating is about 35 % (Sida, 2009). The UNDP's 2005 Human Development Report indicated that 34.9 % of the population live on 1 USD per day and 55.8 % live on 2 USD per day. The inflation rate was 10.3 % in 2008. (CIA world fact book, 2009).
Namibia is very closely linked economically to South Africa and the Namibian dollar is pegged to the South African rand. The Namibian economy is dominated by and heavily depended on the mining industry, generating more than 50 % of foreign exchange earnings. Namibia is the fourth-largest exporter of non-fuel minerals in Africa, with lead, tin, zinc, silver, tungsten and uranium dominating. Namibia is the world’s fifth-largest producer of uranium. Although being such a central factor of the economy only about 3 % of the population is employed by the industry. Between 50 and 70 % of the population are getting their main income from agriculture, still only 9 % of GDP derives from this sector. (STC, 2009b and CIA world fact book 2009)
TABLE 2.2. GDP statistics for Namibia in 2008 (CIA world fact book, 2009)
2008 est.: Country comparison to the world:
GDP (purchasing power parity):
$13.25 billion 136
GDP (official exchange rate): $8.456 billion
GDP - real growth rate: 2.9 % 133
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2.2.7 Energy situation
Namibia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world and the country’s extreme geographic situation with two deserts and a desert like Escarpment high plateau makes it difficult to set up and support effective energy distribution infra structure. Today a large part of the population stands outside the electrical grid especially the poor rural population in the north. The electricity grid, see Figure 2.10, follows the larger roads, but are very underdeveloped as soon as leaving these.
Figure 2.10. Supply of electricity in Namibia (University of Cologne 2009).
In 2006 the electricity consumption was 3.194 billion kWh, 1.948 billion kWh of these were imported with Eskon, South Africa, being the dominating exporter. (Cia world fact book, 2009) Namibia is the fifth largest producer of Uranium and nuclear energy is seen as a possibility. At the SymbioCity conference in Windhoek on September 8th 2009 the minister of Mines and Energy, Erkki Nghimtina, proclaimed that the government considers nuclear energy a realistic and interesting solution to the Namibian energy shortage.
The domestically generated energy is produced at three large plants. According to the STC (2009b) 63 % derives from the Ruacana hydroelectric plant in the Omusati region in the northwest, 31 % comes from the Van Eck coal fire plant in Windhoek and 6 % comes from the Paratuts diesel plant at Walvis Bay. There are a number of ongoing projects to improve energy generating capacity and these are listed and described in Appendix II.
Since independence from South Africa Namibia has had a favourable long-term contract buying cheap energy. This has worked as a preventing factor for construction of power plants in Namibia. In the coming years this is expected to lead to an even more acute energy shortage than
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today’s situation. Nampower expects 75 % of the electricity to come from domestic plants in 2010. (STC, 2009b).
2.3 Energy and human development
This section will present an overview of how access to modern forms of energy, i.e. electricity, is tied to human development and fighting poverty and how such access can be achieved. Initially the ties between energy and poverty will be discussed on a general level, to be followed by a more Namibia specific section. Relevant technology and methodology as well as earlier work will be presented together.
2.3.1 Energy and poverty
A large part of the world’s population still lives without access to modern energy such as electricity, according to the International Energy Agency (2002) (IEA) as many as 1.6 billion people and the number is not looking to decrease within the coming decades, the estimate for 2030 is 1.4 billion. Not having this access to modern energy can be defined as energy poverty and this normally goes hand in hand with financial poverty (Kanagawa and Nakata, 2008). The World Bank (2001) states that in order to fight poverty it is important to promote opportunity. One such opportunity is access to energy. Kanagawa and Nakata summarize the most important links between energy poverty and other components of poverty, shown in Figure 2.11.
Figure 2.11. Links between energy and different kinds of opportunities to fight poverty. (adapted from Kanagawa and Nakata, 2008).
This gives at hand that it is of great importance to find ways of providing clean and sustainable energy that at the same time is affordable for a population with very little financial resources. When people get access to energy they easily seems to “get locked” into a behaviour which then is hard to change. De Vita, Endresen and Hunt (2006) writes that consumers tend to retain both their fuel mix and consumption level. Even if income and prices change they do not easily break away from a pattern of energy provision. This indicates that it is important to find a good solution from the beginning. Once energy access has been provided a large leap can be seen in human development. Ebenhack and Martinez (2008) has identified a curve reminding of saturation phenomena where human development is shown as a function of energy use. The authors use the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI), an index compiled basically of three components, a long and healthy life, knowledge and living standard, where Namibia was ranked
Health
-Use of modern energy reduces exposure to hazardous pollutants.
-The heath condition particulary among women and children are improved as drudgery such as collecting
firewood is avoided.
-Access to electricity enables vaccination, medicine storage in refridgerator, sterilization etc.
Education
-Access to electricity light enables people to study after sunset.
-Access to modern energy creates more time that can be spent on studying.
-Electricity helps narrow the digital divide through different kinds of Information Communication Technologies.
Income
-Enterprise development through electrification creates work opportunities.
-Mechanization in industry achieves higher productivity -Local industry in rural areas are promoted through small
scale energy systems.
Environment
-Use of more efficient electric appliances saves energy consumption.
-Application of renewables promote climate protection. -Less use of firewood saves areas from deforestation.
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at 128:th place in the world in 2009. (UNDP, 2009) The trend is that a steep rise in human development is possible relative to small increases in energy use whereas use of more energy in already high energy consuming countries gives close to no rise. This is illustrated in Figure 2.12.
Figure 2.12. Human Development Index as a function of energy use (kg oil equivalent). A steep rise in human development is possible for energy poor countries. (Ebenhack and Martinez, 2008)
With the prospect of such great development it would seem like an easy thing to do, the problem is then of course the great number of people concerned.
Education is greatly dependent on energy access. Many countries have put efforts to make sure schools have proper energy access to guarantee reasonable conditions for learning. But without electrical lights at home children are not given a fair opportunity to study at home. In a study performed in Zambia, Gustavsson (2007) shows that 83 % of recently electrified households states that children study at home at night compared to 53 % among non-electrified neighbours with similar economic and social conditions. The study did not go on long enough to do any comparisons on results and marks. But the time spent reading is indicating higher performances. According to Mapako and Mbewe (2004) school teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa often invest in photovoltaic (PV) home systems to be able to offer education services in evenings. This is done as a way to increase income and offer children who might be engaged in doing chores during daytime a chance to study at night. Access to modern communication technologies such as radio, television and internet helps making the outside world more real and comprehendible.
With the possibilities of more efficient industry processes, small scale industry in rural areas, higher educational levels and more work opportunities Ebenhack and Martinez (2008) concludes that energy access also work as a catalyst for the country as a whole. Electricity is also a key factor in the war on HIV. Without access to refrigeration, sterilization and illumination the authors mean there is no realistic way to fight the decease. Access to information on preventing spreading is another important factor closely linked to access to energy, in this case to be able to listen to radio and to raise general educational levels.
Electrification is not only a way to create income-generating activities and improve education and health services. An aspect that is by no mean negligible is the entertainment aspect. Watching Premier League Football and American soap operas is not something brought up as justifying factors in electrification projects. Still this is probably the most desired kind of services among the non-electrified population. According to UNDP (2004) more Solar systems bought on a commercial basis in Kenya is to be used with television sets than to generate light. To create a commercially functional product it is important to remember this aspect of the electrification issue.
